The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration collects data on every traffic fatality (pedestrian or otherwise) occurring on U.S. roadways. To determine how many pedestrians were killed in a given year and county, STPP queried the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for pedestrians who suffered fatal injuries. We then aggregated the county-level data to the state, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) or New England County Metropolitan Area (NECMA) for some 330 metro areas across the U.S. Dividing this figure by the appropriate population estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau, and multiplying by 100,000 gave us a yearly fatality rate per 100,000 persons. (See the U.S. Census Bureau for definitions of MSA and NECMA, http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/aboutmetro.html .)

FARS also collects data on the age of the pedestrian killed, allowing STPP to calculate the number of children or elderly pedestrians killed by automobiles. Dividing this number by the total number of pedestrian fatalities gives the proportion of pedestrians killed in a given age group. At the state level, STPP divided the number of child pedestrian fatalities by the population under age 18 to arrive at a state-by-state fatality rate for children.

STPP created the "Pedestrian Danger Index" to allow for a truer comparison of metro areas that takes into account the exposure that pedestrians face in a given metro area. For example, while slightly more pedestrians are killed per capita in the New York metropolitan area than are killed in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, more than three times as many people walk in New York than in Dallas. So, the portion of New York residents exposed to the risk of being killed as a pedestrian is three times higher than in Dallas. We calculated the Pedestrian Danger Index by dividing the average yearly fatality rate for a metro area by the percentage of commuters walking to work in that metro area, and then normalizing that figure to 100. Our exposure measure, the percentage of commuters walking to work is provided by the U.S. Census Bureau’s 1990 Decennial Census.

STPP performed a simple analysis of health and transportation data at the metro level to determine if there was a relationship between walking and health. While there is an large body of literature supporting the theory that daily exercise helps maintain health, little research has been done on the benefits of walking to work or to run daily errands.

Using data from the Centers for Disease Control’s 1998 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), we determined the percentage of residents in metro areas who are at risk for health problems because of being overweight. We compared this to the number of miles walked daily for residents in forty large metro areas across the U.S. This was derived using the 1995 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey (the most recent available) and multiplying the average walk trip length by the average number of daily trips per person. Running a bivariate correlation of the two variables shows a relationship significant at the 0.001 level. The relationship between walking and weight proved enduring, even when other possible influences on obesity were considered. The percent of the population who were overweight continued to decline significantly as daily miles walked per capita increased, controlling for differences in age (percent of population over 45 years), race (percent of population who were minorities), and income (percent of population under the poverty level). Plotting the two variables on a scatter plot also shows evidence of a relationship – there is a slight, but noticeable downward trend in the metro areas, indicating that as the distance walked increases, the percentage of overweight residents in a metro area decreases. Our comparison, while certainly not a rigorous analysis, shows that there may indeed be a relationship, and that this merits further study by professionals in the health field.

STPP calculated spending figures from the Federal Highway Administration’s Fiscal Management Information System – a huge database containing details on every surface (and some waterborne) transportation project receiving federal funds. For the purposes of this report, we queried the database for projects with a work type related to specifically pedestrian programs and facilities, or bicycle and pedestrian programs and facilities. Projects that were specific to bicycles were omitted. Dividing this figure by the appropriate population estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau gives us the amount spent on pedestrian projects per capita. For a point of reference, we also performed this analysis for highway projects. See STPP’s "Changing Direction: Federal Transportation Spending in the 1990s" (http://www.transact.org ) for a more comprehensive analysis as well as more information about this data source.

The percentage of federal funds spent on pedestrian projects was determined by dividing the amount derived above by the total federal funds spent (including funds devoted to transit). At the national level, STPP compared this number to the percent of trips taken by foot, from the 1995 Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey.